Hey, Everyone!

So, this story is going to be fifty chapters, I think.

Enjoy!

Chapter 43

Jason

Jason stabbed at the creature and it jerked back.

Piper stabbed at the beast from the other side and it lurched backward and hissed.

Piper wasn't helping.

Jason had pin-pointed every single weak point the monster had, but Piper kept getting in the way. He couldn't just yell at her, tell her to move. They were partners. But sometimes people just had to work alone.

Leo was up at Nico's cage trying to get it to open.

"How you doing up there, Leo?" Jason called up to him.

"I'm working on it, Grace!" Leo's response seemed agitated.

He tried to cut for her side, but Piper got in his way and stabbed for its legs.

He needed to get her out of here, away from harm and out of his way.

But he couldn't just ask her to leave. What could he say? Piper, leave so I can kill the monster while you wait for me outside?

She'd kill him. She'd at least be violently angry with him for the next couple days.

He tried to strike but she stepped in front of him and he could barely hold his sword back before cutting her as she tried to cut off one of the goat legs.

This was the worst Piper had fought…ever.

Didn't she know this was important?

Maybe it was just his view on the situation. She was probably fighting pretty well.

There was a sudden loud crashing sound, and both demigods on the floor and the creature looked back to see whatever it was.

A cage door had fallen and crashed onto the ground. Leo was inside the cage, pulling Nico over his shoulder.

Trying to, anyway.

"Piper, keep it busy," Jason instructed as he flew up to get his friends down.

"Hey, I'm a she!" the creature shrieked. "I have feelings too, you know."

Jason floated outside the cage and waited for a moment. "Leo, just pass him to me, and then jump. I'll catch you."

"Got it, Jason," he replied as he handed Nico to Jason.

Nico wasn't moving. He was breathing, but he wasn't moving.

"Ready?" Leo asked.

"Ready," Jason replied.

Leo ran and leapt into Jason. He caught him easily and he flew back down.

He was dreading the idea of going back and fighting with Piper as Leo tried to wake up Nico.

And then an idea struck him.

Before he could say anything, a moan floated toward him from Leo and Nico's direction, and he turned to see Nico blinking and moving his arms to sit up.

"My leg still broken?" Jason heard him ask.

"Yeah, man," Leo replied.

"Leo, Piper," he shouted to make sure she could hear him. "You two should go and see if you can find Hazel and Frank. We found Nico, so who knows what they found?"

"You think you can do this on your own?" Leo asked.

"Trust me," he replied. "Leave Nico here. I can do this."

"Yeah, leave me here," Nico replied. "I couldn't move even if I wanted to."

"Alright," Piper shouted. "Good luck, Jason."

"We'll see you later, Grace," Leo replied, and Piper took one last swing before Jason cut in and Leo and Piper ran off toward the door and disappeared.

"It seems like it's just you and me, demigod," the creature cackled. "Not as good as the two down in Tartarus, but you may still make a good sacrifice."

"I'm not dying anytime soon, Crazy," he snapped, and then he lunged for the soft spot he'd noticed just at the base of the snake part of her abdomen.

She hissed and lunged backward.

Jason then moved and tried to cut off one of her mandibles. She deflected with one of her lion paws, which split and turned to dust.

She roared and smacked him in the chest with her still whole paw. He went flying into the wall of stench from earlier.

He gagged on the air and crawled his way back into the open air.

He gasped for breath as he stood back up.

He needed to go for that soft spot again.

He screamed and ran at her, and she tried to hit him again, but he dodged and stabbed the soft spot.

She squealed and hissed, but Jason was finished yet.

He pulled his sword out and swung his sword in the direction of the snake neck.

The snake head hissed and lunged for him and bit on his arm, tearing through his shirt and pulling back for another attack.

He sliced it clean off and watched it turn to sand before hitting the ground, raining monster dust all around him.

She roared and clicked her mandibles.

Jason held his injured arm stared at the bite.

It was oozing blood and puss.

It was also probably poisoned.

He tried to ignore it. He had to ignore it, because the monster in front of him was still there.

"Just give up, little demigod," she taunted.

"But I'm winning," he replied.

"Quit while you're ahead," she replied, and she swung her paw at him again as her old one started to reform.

He leapt backward before it hit him and then rushed her and cut off the leg of the reforming paw.

She screeched and tried to hit him, but he was too close to her.

He smiled.

Winners don't quit.

He stabbed through her underside and cut through until he had split open her chest.

"I will return, little demigod," she hissed as she disintegrated. "Gaea will rise. You are just delaying the inevitable."

And she turned into the biggest pile of dust Jason had ever had the pleasure of creating.

He ran over to Nico, and then the pain of the snake bite actually set in. He grabbed his arm and tried to numb the pain.

"Hey, you remembered me," Nico said dully as Jason helped him stand on his good leg, and then he wrapped one of Nico's arms around his shoulders.

"Use me as a crutch," Jason replied, ignoring his comment. "We have to get you back to the ship. We have nectar and ambrosia on the ship. You're going to be just fine."

"Yeah yeah yeah," Nico grumbled. "Let's just go."

Jason was going to get Nico out of here alive.

They passed through the stench wall and out of the still open door. He could only hope that Leo and Piper weren't lost, and Hazel and Frank were okay.

Thanks for Reading!